This story begins back when I was a teenager. It was the first time I became serious about trying to bring one of my ideas to life. My invention was named “Analog Break Lights”. I knew nothing about business or inventions, but I submitted my idea to one of those inventors websites. Thinking the site was a scam or my idea sucked, I never expected to hear back.

Several days later, I was surprised to get a call that my idea was selected for review. They asked me more questions and sounded interested. The following week I was told that I was chosen by a board review to advance, but there was a catch. They wanted $800 from me to generate some market research. A big red flag went off in my head and I ended the process.

What the heck does that have to do with Android?

Google has placed very minimal hurdles for entry to the Android Market. All it takes is $25 and and your application to join the club and begin releasing code to the masses. Any kid with an idea can instantly throw it out there and get feedback. When his app is mature enough of a product, he can then sell his app and begin to turn a profit. There have been mobile and open source markets before, but Android brings that to a new level.

Torrent Droid was created by Alec Holmes but it sprung from an idea I had the first time I saw Shop Savvy demonstrated. I’m not a coder, so I offered money through our Android Bounty program in order to encourage development. This demonstrates how easily ideas and developers can come together and bring a project to reality. Android excels in this area with their use of application intents. Intents allow different apps to share information and functions with each other. When you have a mashup of apps, each part can be developed separately which allows for faster deployment.

In a way, the whole Android operating system is a mashup. Every part of the phone can be replaced and upgraded. If you want a different contacts list, txt app, dialer, home screen, boot screen, or theme then take your pick. Allowing every part of the phone to be modded and swapped out grants the power of choice to the user. We have seen with the recent desktop replacement apps how fast the look of Android is changing.

Once we posted the first preview, I submitted the story to Torrent Freak thinking they would find it interesting. From there it went to Digg and a host of other social sites. By the end of the first day there was 30k views and I thought the traffic would die down. I learned that It takes awhile for some news to travel around the globe. The story was still gaining traction 3 days later in countries like Russia and France. As of earlier today, it has not passed 100k views. I know this is peanuts in the YouTube world, but it still demonstrates the viral nature that buzz spreads.

What will be the next killer app? Who will create the next sensation? Could you possibly turn $25 and some hard work into a fortune? Maybe…

Bonus Content

I love analytics and I found this Insight data from YouTube very interesting. It is a breakdown of fans of Android/Torrents. I’m not really sure if you can draw real conclusions from this, but I’ll share the information and see what you guys think. This is data from over 100,000 YouTube views from the Torrent Droid preview. If you like this kind of information let me know and I may share my Google Analytics information.

YouTube Insight Global Views

Here is a video of total views from around the globe. You can see the 2nd day had the most views as it took time for the story to spread. The United States had the most views with Poland, France, and Canada following behind.

YouTube Insight USA Popularity

Here is a view of the popularity rankings from different states. This value is caculated by comparing the number of views with other videos on YouTube. As expected, California ranks first. Rounding out the top five are:

California

Texas

Washington

New York

Oregon

YouTube Insight Demographics

Next, we have age and gender demographics. I was surprised to see the highest age group was 35-44. For some reason, I expected a younger user base when talking about Torrents, Android, and cell phones. The gender gap is also significant. Keep in mind about 1/10th of this traffic is coming from Torrent Freak. Still, I expected to see a more balanced gender distribution.

Finally, the following is a list submitted by one of our readers of his favorite quotes about Torrent Droid from around the web.

“I was waiting for the point when Torrent and Direct Download users started a stupid verbal fight…” – dominicabra

“hah ridiculous response. 1st of all anyone who is scared of best buy employees is a p***y. 2nd of all they dont carry plastic handcufss now i wish i had one of these just to scrap with some idiot best buy employees” – crazytodde

“I’d love to be a fly on the wall when the MPAA sees this one :-)” – CatsAreGods

“i enjoyed the heavy breathing too” – TITISIMO25

“…if you’re in the store, why the hell not buy the movie? Eh? Why waste money on something you can get for free? That’s good money that could otherwise be used for more important things, like beer, drugs, and h****s.” – Mike Rofone

“Seriously, I cannot think of anything more inconsiderate than this app. Waltzing right in, waving your expensive gadget phone around, no intention of buying anything, just going to take a few photos and walk out. This is like five popped collars and two cans of Axe body spray douchebaggery.” – WTF

“What happens if you scan a bannana? or a box of cereal? Something awesome I bet!” – jayrodathome

Taylor is the founder of Android and Me. He resides in Dallas and carries the Samsung Galaxy S 4 and HTC One as his daily devices. Ask him a question on Twitter or Google+ and he is likely to respond. | Ethics statement

Most Tweeted This Week

nEx.Software

Nice analysis and explanation. It is interesting to note just how important even basic marketing can be. Even something as simple as submitting the story to one well-known site such as torrentfreak.com can be huge. Looking at the numbers for the Torrent Droid video as compared to the numbers for the ScanTorrent video, is proof in the pudding. In 6 days, Torrent Droid: 102,880 views. In 1 day, ScanTorrent: 325 views. the lesson to be learned from this and I think this article points out well is the importance of marketing your app.

Vito Ielati

douchebaggery! gotta love it. Its always so insightful some people really are .

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I still think your app could make big news. None of the major media outlets really covered this story. It was pretty much a blog only story so far.

nEx.Software

I definitely agree. There is certainly more marketing opportunities out there. But it certainly helps to get the blog-o-sphere spinning about your app. I am looking forward to seeing how this all pans out, both for Torrent Droid and for ScanTorrent. I certainly hope both are successful.

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